How To Temper Licker by Tony Smith

How to Temper Licker

excerpt from "An Appalachian Mother's Love

After we got done eating Art said, “Now Tony, I’ll show you how to temper licker.” Mom said to us, “While you are doing that I’ll wash up your dishes for you. It won’t take long.” Art went outside and when he came back in he had a plastic barrel that had been cut in two. It was only about two feet tall. Art set the plastic barrel on the floor in front of the couch. Then he went to his closet and got the licker and set it down beside the plastic barrel. He walked over to the mantle and got a little half pint whiskey bottle. He came back to the couch and set down. He looked at me and asked, “Now Tony, are you ready to learn something?”

I looked at Art with a big smile on my face and said, “Why sure I am.” He said “Now Tony, you know that the first gallon of licker that comes out of the still, now that is always the strongest licker you will have. The longer the licker runs the weaker it gets. Now the first two gallons may be way over a 100 proof. The third gallon may be 100 proof and the fourth and fifth gallons may only be sixty or seventy proof. I am going to show you how to mix the weak licker with the strong licker until we get a 100 proof.”

I sat and watched as Art would pour a little of the strong licker into the plastic barrel. Then he poured a little of the weak licker into the barrel. Then he stirred it all up together. He took the little half pint whiskey bottle and filled it about half full of licker and put the lid back on the bottle. He shook up and down three times. He watched to see what the little bubbles in the bottle would do. After he looked at it, he said,“Well she is a little weak.” Then he poured more of the strong licker in the barrel. When he got it the way he wanted it, he had four gallons and a quart.

Me and Mom laughed when said, “I’ll sell Melvin the four gallons but he ain’t getting this quart.” Mom asked, “Well Art what are you going to with that quart?” Art said, “I’m keeping that for old self.” We all laughed. Art said, “Why,that will taste just as good to me as it would to someone else and we are the ones that’s doing all the work anyway.